Unless you have been
living under a rock the past few days, you have no doubt heard and seen the
furor caused by President Donald Trump’s signing of an executive order that
places a temporary halt on refugees from seven different countries entering the
United States. The liberal media, Hollywood celebrities and protestors angrily
denounced this policy as “unconstitutional,” “un-American,” “racist,” “Islam-a-phobic”
and just plain “mean-spirited.”
What is even more fascinating
is how many people on my Facebook newsfeed started citing Scripture to justify
an open borders policy. I thought this to be deliciously ironic since most of
these same folks reject the Bible as oppressive and outdated when it comes to
abortion, homosexuality, drunkenness and fornication. Now they want to quote Scripture!
The Bible isn’t a Chipotle where you can make your own spiritual burrito based
on your pet sins and preferences and throw out the stuff that doesn’t fit your
pallet. We can’t have it both ways.
But, all this acrimony got
me wondering, “What does the Bible actually say concerning immigration?” So, I started
to do some digging and I was surprised what I found.
First, nations and borders were God’s idea. Remember back to the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11? Mankind
tried to build a civilization unified by one language and one religion. God put
a stop to that by introducing the language barrier and scattering people to the
four winds.
“7 Come, let us go down
and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's
speech.” 8 So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth.”
(Gen. 11:7-8). This judgment resulted in the different cultures and ethnic
groups we still see today.
In fact, the national separateness
we experience today is a God-ordained protection against man’s prideful craving
for absolute power and domination. The Apostle Paul preached to a group of philosophers
in Athens saying:
“26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to
live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the
boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps
feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each
one of us.” (Acts 17:26-27)
Nationalism, not globalism
is God’s will. We must be wary of the current trend towards the call for a
one-world government. This the sure way to tyranny (in fact, this is one reason
why the Tribulation period headed up by the Antichrist will be so bad). But, I
digress.
Second, God’s people are to assist and assimilate the
stranger in their land as best they can.
Many of these principles were given to the Jewish people by God and were to be
instituted as part of their national policy. (Now we understand that America is
not ancient Israel. We are not a theocracy like they were intended to be. We
ought not take those things which God intended for Israel and wrongly misapply
them to our situation.) Here are a few general principles.
The Lord told Israel soon
after their deliverance from Egyptian bondage, “You shall not oppress a sojourner. You know the heart of a
sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt” (Ex. 23:9). In ancient
Israel, foreigners were to have proper rest from their work like everyone else
(Ex. 20:10; 23:12; Deut. 5:14) and receive a fair wage on time (Deut.
24:14-15). Law courts were to be fair and impartial to outsiders (Deut.
1:16-17; 24:17-18; 27:19). There also were provisions for food in times of
hunger (Lev. 19:9-10; Deut. 14:28-29; 24:19-22). Even more impressive was the
command to allow foreigners to participate in Israel’s worship, the most precious
part of their culture (Ex. 12:45-49; Lev. 16:29).
The Old Testament cites examples
of foreign-born men and women who were accepted and become productive citizens
of Israel. Rahab, a prostitute from Jericho, and Ruth, a widow from Moab come
to mind. Both of these women are included in the genealogy of Jesus (Matt.
1:5-6).
Moreover, Jesus showed
kindness and compassion towards outsiders. Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman at
the well, even though upstanding Jews thought of the Samaritans as half-breeds
(John 4). On another occasion, Jesus healed the demon-possessed daughter of a Canaanite
woman (Matt. 15:28). And don’t forget that Jesus was a refugee for a short
period during his infancy when Mary and Joseph fled to Egypt to escape wicked king
Herod (Matt. 2:13-15).
On the flip side of the
issue, strangers—or immigrants—in the land of Israel were expected to
assimilate into the Jewish society and obey many of the civil and religious
laws. They would have had to learn Israel’s laws and speak the language to work
and take part in the religious life of Israel (Deut. 31:8-13). Consider just a
handful of passages from the Law:
“10 but the seventh day is
a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your
son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your
livestock, or the sojourner who is within
your gates.” (Exodus 20:10)
“26 But you shall keep my
statutes and my rules and do none of these abominations, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you.”
(Leviticus 18:26)
“16 Whoever blasphemes the
name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone
him. The sojourner as well as the native,
when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.” (Leviticus 24:16).
David Jeremiah summarizes
the issue of immigration and the Bible, “The message of the Bible concerning
strangers in the land is clear: If they accept the national culture and work as
participants in the national economy, they are welcomed and allowed full
participation in the life of the nation. If they refuse to assimilate and cling
to their old laws, beliefs and customs, their customs, their activities must be
restricted for the good of the nation.”[1]
Third, ancient people practiced what we today would
call “vetting” or “documentation.” So
how did people become legal aliens in another country? The classic example is
when Jacob’s family went to Egypt to escape a famine in Canaan. By divine
providence, Jacob’s son, Joseph was already the Prime Minister in Egypt and helped
with the immigration process. Still, Joseph’s family asked Pharaoh for
permission to move to Egypt:
And they said to Pharaoh,
“Your servants are shepherds, as our fathers were” … “We have come to sojourn
in the land, for there is no pasture for your servants’ flocks, for the famine
is severe in the land of Canaan. And now, please let your servants dwell in the
land of Goshen.” Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Your father and your brothers
have come to you. The land of Egypt is before you. Settle your father and your
brothers in the best of the land. Let them settle in the land of Goshen”
(Genesis 47:3-6).
This means that the
Hebrews, though foreigners, obtained legal status in Egypt. They went through a
“vetting” process by standing before the Pharaoh.
Fourth, as Christians we must submit to government authorities
and the laws of the land. Paul writes
in Romans 13:1-2, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities.
For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been
instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God
has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.”
God has instituted governments
and kings for His sovereign purpose and to ensure law and order. God expects us
to obey the laws of the government. The only exception to this is when a law of
the government forces us to disobey a command of God (Acts 5:29). Illegal
immigration is the breaking of a government’s law and is not supported
biblically. Moreover, there is nothing in Scripture that contradicts the idea
of a sovereign nation having immigration laws, imposing “bans,” building walls
or closing the borders all together.
Immigration is a complex
issue. The vast majority of immigrants in the United States have come for the
purpose of having a better life, providing for their families, and escaping
poverty. These are admirable goals. Certainly, the U.S. is still a beacon of
hope for many. As Christians we should be compassionate to the poor and the
needy who come to our land. As Americans we should be wise and realize that
immigration is not “a right,” but a privilege. It is wise to protect our own
citizens first. It is wise to have a screening process to see if immigrants
have ties to terrorism. It is wise to make sure that immigrants are willing to
assimilate, obey the laws of the land and contribute to upholding the fabric of
this society.
Franklin Graham, evangelist
and leader of Samaritan’s Purse, was recently interviewed by the media on the topic
of immigration and I think he had a good response, “We live in a very dangerous
world and I think the president’s first priority is to protect the American
people and until there is a better system in place for vetting and knowing who
comes into America, I believe every person who comes unto the U.S. should be
vetted. We need to know who they are and what they believe, if they share the
same core values of freedom and liberty.”[2]
There is no reason why we
cannot have a balanced approach—we must be compassionate and wise. The Bible
holds these truths in tension. In fact, it was Jesus who said to his disciples,
“Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as
serpents and innocent as doves” (Matt. 10:16).
[1]
David Jeremiah, Is This The End? (Nashville,
TN: Thomas Nelson, 2016), 50.
[2] <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/frankling-graham-refugees_us_5889049ce4b061cf898c6c42>
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